Mark Maness walks from Cincinnati to Newport to eat at Henry Hosea House every day.
The soup kitchen, located at 901 York St., in Newport, is the only one in Campbell County that people can rely on for a hot meal from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. seven days a week. Maness said his number one purpose for visiting the kitchen is to have a nutritious meal—something not always readily available as he is experiencing homelessness.
“Basically, I just eat breakfast in the morning, and then I come here, and then I don’t eat the rest of the day because, in the summertime, it’s bad to go to sleep in hot weather with food on your stomach,” Maness said.
With the sun shining down and temperatures in the 80s, Maness wouldn’t be eating again after he cleaned his plate of a sandwich, soup, baked beans, potato salad, choice of a root beer or orange Crush float, and a drink served at the kitchen that Wednesday.
“There’s a lot of different places that serve food,” Maness said. “A lot of different soup kitchens around. And you go around and get your feel for whatever one you’re comfortable with—the environment, the people, the atmosphere of the building. You can explain it, but really, you’d have the experience it, and then you would truly understand.”
The Henry Hosea House was started in 1991 by sister Mary Dorgan in a Newport church’s basement. According to Henry Hosea House Executive Director Lauren Cavanaugh, Dorgan’s vision was to bring together the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati communities to help those in need.
Now 32 years later, people like Maness are still walking across the Purple People Bridge to come to the kitchen. Cavanaugh said volunteers also come from all over the region to lend a hand.
The population they serve, Cavanaugh said, is roughly half people experiencing homelessness and half people who are low-income. It’s also a mix of seniors, families, and veterans. They serve about 90 to 100 people daily, or about 700 meals per week.
Henry Hosea House relies on donations but does purchase food if they don’t receive enough. The kitchen gets items from organizations from Last Mile Food Rescue of Cincinnati, and places like the Northern Kentucky Convention Center donate overages to the kitchen.
People can also help support the kitchen by visiting their community partners, like Grass Roots and Vine in Fort Thomas and Bourbon House Pizza in Newport, on the first Tuesday of each month, when 15% of all revenue is donated to Henry Hosea House.
Cavanaugh said she would love the opportunity to have more community partners.
“Pretty much all nonprofits are seeing a decrease, especially in individual donors,” Cavanaugh said. “So, for us to be able to build more of those kinds of partnerships where maybe a percentage goes to us of one night’s meal is a great opportunity for us to have some money coming in and also to bring business into local restaurants.”
Cavanaugh said soup kitchens like Henry Hosea House provide people with more than a meal. It’s also a safe place to go.
“Whether you’re an adult or a child or a senior or veteran, disabled, whatever your situation, it takes a lot of stress away,” she said.
Cavanaugh said they often have people say that the kitchen’s food is their first meal of the day.
The kitchen always has the news on so people can stay updated on the weather. Cavanaugh said whenever they can help with clothing or hygiene donations, they also try and hand those out.
“What I found fascinating since I started here is the community that exists at the Henry Hosea House,” Cavanaugh said. “People will sit together, and they talk. They learn about each other’s lives. They don’t feel alone for a period of time, and I think that’s so important.”
